Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae Quotes

“Kepler, Johannes”

“History of science”

“Scientific Revolution”

“[B]ecause certain people cannot grasp the subtleties of things, they lay the charge of novelty-hunting upon me.”

“Wikipedia: Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae”

“Archive.org
• Epitomes astronomiae Copernicanae (1622)”

“What is the subject of the doctrine of the schemata?
The proper movements of the planets; we call them the secondary movements; and the planets, the secondary movables.”

“You can count few academies in which it is a part of the program to explain the Metaphysics of Aristotle: yet Aristotle wrote the Metaphysics too, a very useful work...”

“As regards the academies, they are... concerned not to have the program of teaching change very often... the things which have to be chosen are not those which are most true but those which are most easy.”

“I even in private free myself from the blame of seeking after novelty by suitable proofs: let my doctrines say whether there is love of truth in me or love of glory: for most of the ones I hold have been taken from other writers...”

“These extracts from the letter, most of which have to do with the investigation of very hidden causes which is to be viewed in this little book, should be spoken and understood. And now it is time for the reader to pass on to the little book.”

“[F]or me there is so much importance in the true doctrine of others or even in correcting the doctrines which are not... well established, that my mind is never at leisure for the game of inventing new doctrines that are contrary to the true.”

“I build my whole astronomy upon Copernicus' hypotheses concerning the world, upon the observations of Tycho Brahe, and lastly upon the Englishman, William Gilbert's philosophy of magnetism.”

“Accordingly, if certain subtleties which are difficult to grasp should not be laid before beginners, or if they should not be preferred to the accepted and necessary teachings, it does not follow that... those things should neither be written nor read privately.”

“And that will occur in order that the alterations in the heavens should not destroy their eternity, if there should be such an eternity, just as the terrestrial alterations, which are perrennial and return in a circle, destroy the Earth’s eternity which was equally believed by Aristotle.”

“Aristotle is the man... who in On the Heavens... Chapter 9... asks: "Do the stars give forth sounds which are modulated harmonically? and answers no: ...I grant that no sounds are given forth but I affirm and demonstrate that the movements are modulated according to harmonic proportions.”

“Antiquity teaches us... how vainly man sets up boundary posts where God has not set them... how severely all the astronomers were blamed by the first Christians. ...Yet today we set up academies everywhere: we order that philosophy be taught, that astronomy be taught, that the antipodes be taught.”

“[I]f... even this inquiry is accused of being esoteric... the head of astronomy is struck off. And since astronomy is studied either for its own sake as a philosophy or for the sake of making astronomical predictions... the taking away from me of the primary end slays this whole subtle astronomy and plainly makes it useless.”

“Astronomers should not be granted excessive license to conceive anything they please without reason: on the contrary, it is also necessary for you to establish the probable causes of your Hypotheses which you recommend as the true causes of the Appearances. Hence you must first establish the principles of your Astronomy in a higher science, namely Physics and Metaphysics.”

“For... it is disclosed by the telescope... and can be seen... that the solar body is covered with spots, which cross the disk of the sun or its lower hemisphere within 12 or 13 or 14 days, slowly at the beginning and at the end, but rapidly in the middle, which argues that they are stuck to the surface of the sun and turn with it...”